The Refiner's Fire

[Dave Monroe]

The Refiner's Fire
The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844

John L. Brooke, Tufts University, Massachusetts

This book presents an alternative and comprehensive understanding of
the roots of Mormon religion, which proposes that the faithful will
become gods. The book's central thesis is that the origins of
Mormonism lie in the fusion of radical religion with magical ideas
about recovering the divine powers of Adam lost in the fall from
Paradise (ideas known as the hermetic philosophy) that occurred during
the Reformation and the English Revolution. The book is organised
around the two problems of demonstrating the survival of these ideas
into the nineteenth century and of how they were manifested in Mormon
doctrine. A final chapter outlines how Mormonism gradually has moved
toward traditional Protestant Christianity since the 1850s. Besides
religion, this book deals with magic, witchcraft, alchemy,
Freemasonry, counterfeiting, and state-formation.

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1153340/?site_locale=en_GB

http://books.google.com/books?id=eyvftt-1F_kC